We condemn the Israeli bombing, but the Assad regime isn’t blameless ~ by Khalid Amayreh

A few days ago, Israeli warplanes bombed certain military targets in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Western intelligence sources said the targets were a convey of weapons, including missiles, destined for the Lebanese Shiite militia, Hizbullah. The Syrian government said a research center and two other unspecific targets were hit by air-to-ground missiles fired by Israeli war planes, apparently from the Lebanese airspace.As Arabs and Muslims, we unhesitatingly condemn the blatant and unprovoked bombing. Israel, after all, remains and will always be Islam’s number-1 enemy, irrespective of the tribulations now taking place in much of the Arab world.

This is not the first time Israel attacks Syria. Israeli war planes flew over the presidential palace of Bashar el-Assad a few years ago without being intercepted. Even anti-aircraft defenses were not operated to repulse the hostile warplanes.

Moreover, Israeli warplanes recently hit several “sensitive targets” in Syria. As usual, the reactions of the Syrian regime was confined to the rhetorical sphere, with regime’s spokespersons vowing to hit back if the Zionist state did it again.

None the less it is highly unlikely that the Assad regime will react in any pro-active manner even if Israel repeats the bombing so many times over. The regime is simply too cowardly and too treacherous to confront Israel.

In the final analysis, the Assad regime’s ultimate strategy is to keep the Assad dynasty in power regardless of all other considerations. Needless to say, attacking Israel, as part of Syria’s right to self-defense, could speed up the process of the Assad regime’s demise and ultimate downfall. The regime’s survival is more important than Syria’s honor and survival. Doesn’t the virtual destruction of Syria by the regime and its sectarian allies testify to this fact?

To be sure, Syria is not too week to defend itself, but it is abundantly clear that the Alawite minority regime is too cowardly to stand up to Israeli aggression. Besides, self-defense is not only a matter of military strength, it is also a matter of national honor and dignity, something the Assad regime obviously doesn’t possess.

The truth of the matter is that no state or military organization is too week to deter enemies and even retaliate when attacked, Take for example Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic liberation movement. Although there is no semblance of a symmetry of power between Israel and Hamas, the latter has always managed to hit back at Israel whenever attacked in the Gaza Strip. Last year, Hamas and other Palestinian organizations, whose military capabilities don’t equal a fraction of the capabilities of the Assad regime, showered Israeli towns and settlements, including Tel Aviv and Haifa, with missiles, forcing millions of Israelis to go underground.

In the beginning of the second Intifada, the Israeli occupation army murdered the head of the popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Ali Mustafa, and while in his Ramallah office. A few months later, the group liquidated the racist Israeli official and cabinet minister Rahbaam Zeevi, who advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland.

So, the question that begs itself is why is it that a small resistance group can hit back when attacked by Israel whereas a huge military force such as the army of Bashar Assad is shockingly powerless to defend Syria’s national honor?

The Syrian army is officially named “Humatudiyar” or “the protectors of the homeland.” However, in practice, the Syrian army is political in nature and its ultimate mission is to keep the sectarian regime in power at any price and under all circumstances.

Indeed, if the Syrian army, tightly controlled by the esoteric Alawite cult, were to use only 10% of the military resources used in slaughtering its own people, it would conceivably deter Israeli attacks and provocations.

So, where are the regime’s warplanes that rain death and fire on Syrian neighborhoods in Damascus, Halab and Homs around the clock? Where are the regime’s Shabbihas (butchers and thugs) who routinely raid neighboring Sunni villages where they slaughter en mass, women and children in order to “ethnically cleanse” these villages for a future break-away Alawite state which would be at Israel’s and Iran’s beck and call? Needless to say, such a state-let would be another Israel in the Arab world? Indeed, where is all the rhetoric about resistance, anti-Zionism and anti-imperialism that we kept hearing rather ad nauseam for the past 50 years?

A regime that has been murdering its own people in the tens of thousands and utterly destroying Syrian towns and villages in order to keep a specific family or sect in power doesn’t deserve our sympathy or solidarity. Even in the best possible circumstances, this regime is not less evil than Israel.

The nefarious regime claims that it is being targeted by Israel for its resistance to Zionism and imperialism. But since when was resistance to Zionism and imperialism carried out by dismembering Syrian children by hatchets and axes at the hands of Alawite thugs and cutthroats working in the service of the regime?

Since when was raping Syrian women and school girls a form of resistance to Zionism and American imperialism?

There is no doubt that the crimes committed by Israel against Syria don’t equal a small fraction of the genocidal crimes committed by the Syrian regime against its own people. It is sad and lamentable that we have reached a point where we have to compare and contrast Israeli crimes and the Syrian regime’s crimes against its own people, but truth must be told however unpalatable it may be.

In fact, the satanic sectarian tyranny of the Bashar Assad regime is far more dangerous for the Syrian people than Israel. Just consider the fact that in two years of repression of the Syrian revolution, more than a hundred thousand Syrians, mostly innocent civilians, have been killed and over half a million injured at the hands of Assad’s thugs. This is not to mention the estimated 8 million refugees forced out of their homes by the unrelenting violence and terror.

The Syrian people can not and will not coexist with this evil regime. It must go (and it will go), irrespective of the price. One can’t live with a venomous treacherous snake in one’s chamber.
A few days ago, Israeli warplanes bombed certain military targets in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Western intelligence sources said the targets were a convey of weapons, including missiles, destined for the Lebanese Shiite militia, Hizbullah. The Syrian government said a research center and two other unspecific targets were hit by air-to-ground missiles fired by Israeli war planes, apparently from the Lebanese airspace.

As Arabs and Muslims, we unhesitatingly condemn the blatant and unprovoked bombing. Israel, after all, remains and will always be Islam’s number-1 enemy, irrespective of the tribulations now taking place in much of the Arab world.

This is not the first time Israel attacks Syria. Israeli war planes flew over the presidential palace of Bashar el-Assad a few years ago without being intercepted. Even anti-aircraft defenses were not operated to repulse the hostile warplanes.

Moreover, Israeli warplanes recently hit several “sensitive targets” in Syria. As usual, the reactions of the Syrian regime was confined to the rhetorical sphere, with regime’s spokespersons vowing to hit back if the Zionist state did it again.

None the less it is highly unlikely that the Assad regime will react in any pro-active manner even if Israel repeats the bombing so many times over. The regime is simply too cowardly and too treacherous to confront Israel.

In the final analysis, the Assad regime’s ultimate strategy is to keep the Assad dynasty in power regardless of all other considerations. Needless to say, attacking Israel, as part of Syria’s right to self-defense, could speed up the process of the Assad regime’s demise and ultimate downfall. The regime’s survival is more important than Syria’s honor and survival. Doesn’t the virtual destruction of Syria by the regime and its sectarian allies testify to this fact?

To be sure, Syria is not too week to defend itself, but it is abundantly clear that the Alawite minority regime is too cowardly to stand up to Israeli aggression. Besides, self-defense is not only a matter of military strength, it is also a matter of national honor and dignity, something the Assad regime obviously doesn’t possess.

The truth of the matter is that no state or military organization is too week to deter enemies and even retaliate when attacked, Take for example Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic liberation movement. Although there is no semblance of a symmetry of power between Israel and Hamas, the latter has always managed to hit back at Israel whenever attacked in the Gaza Strip. Last year, Hamas and other Palestinian organizations, whose military capabilities don’t equal a fraction of the capabilities of the Assad regime, showered Israeli towns and settlements, including Tel Aviv and Haifa, with missiles, forcing millions of Israelis to go underground.

In the beginning of the second Intifada, the Israeli occupation army murdered the head of the popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Ali Mustafa, and while in his Ramallah office. A few months later, the group liquidated the racist Israeli official and cabinet minister Rahbaam Zeevi, who advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland.

So, the question that begs itself is why is it that a small resistance group can hit back when attacked by Israel whereas a huge military force such as the army of Bashar Assad is shockingly powerless to defend Syria’s national honor?

The Syrian army is officially named “Humatudiyar” or “the protectors of the homeland.” However, in practice, the Syrian army is political in nature and its ultimate mission is to keep the sectarian regime in power at any price and under all circumstances.

Indeed, if the Syrian army, tightly controlled by the esoteric Alawite cult, were to use only 10% of the military resources used in slaughtering its own people, it would conceivably deter Israeli attacks and provocations.

So, where are the regime’s warplanes that rain death and fire on Syrian neighborhoods in Damascus, Halab and Homs around the clock? Where are the regime’s Shabbihas (butchers and thugs) who routinely raid neighboring Sunni villages where they slaughter en mass, women and children in order to “ethnically cleanse” these villages for a future break-away Alawite state which would be at Israel’s and Iran’s beck and call? Needless to say, such a state-let would be another Israel in the Arab world? Indeed, where is all the rhetoric about resistance, anti-Zionism and anti-imperialism that we kept hearing rather ad nauseam for the past 50 years?

A regime that has been murdering its own people in the tens of thousands and utterly destroying Syrian towns and villages in order to keep a specific family or sect in power doesn’t deserve our sympathy or solidarity. Even in the best possible circumstances, this regime is not less evil than Israel.

The nefarious regime claims that it is being targeted by Israel for its resistance to Zionism and imperialism. But since when was resistance to Zionism and imperialism carried out by dismembering Syrian children by hatchets and axes at the hands of Alawite thugs and cutthroats working in the service of the regime?

Since when was raping Syrian women and school girls a form of resistance to Zionism and American imperialism?

There is no doubt that the crimes committed by Israel against Syria don’t equal a small fraction of the genocidal crimes committed by the Syrian regime against its own people. It is sad and lamentable that we have reached a point where we have to compare and contrast Israeli crimes and the Syrian regime’s crimes against its own people, but truth must be told however unpalatable it may be.

In fact, the satanic sectarian tyranny of the Bashar Assad regime is far more dangerous for the Syrian people than Israel. Just consider the fact that in two years of repression of the Syrian revolution, more than a hundred thousand Syrians, mostly innocent civilians, have been killed and over half a million injured at the hands of Assad’s thugs. This is not to mention the estimated 8 million refugees forced out of their homes by the unrelenting violence and terror.

The Syrian people can not and will not coexist with this evil regime. It must go (and it will go), irrespective of the price. One can’t live with a venomous treacherous snake in one’s chamber.